o-

Solo performance, new creation 2023-2024

O. is a yonologue: a monologue in two voices – one danced and one written - that inverts the “brain-pelvis” hierarchy to make space for the pelvic body to speak. Here the pelvis manifests itself as a motor for movement, a generator for speaking, and–as the site where human life originates–a connection to all forms of life.

In a yonologue, the “m” for mono, me, masculine, is replaced by the “y” for yoni, the sacred sanskrit term for “origin” that represents the female genital organs. A yonologue differs from a monologue by reordering the culturally hierarchical distinction between pelvis and brain, bottom and top, body and spirit, sound and speech, movement and language, profane and sacred.

The shape of the monologue – which traditionally focuses on a single subject – most often human and male – is reworked to give rise to a feminine plural that commences with personal singular experiences, and expands from there to include all forms of life: humans of all genders, animals, plants, minerals.

Alone on stage, the performer set in motion the indecipherable, unspeakable and sometimes contradictory things contained in the pelvis, finding a new way of articulating the binaries of body and soul, irrational and rational, shadow and light, intuition and science, other-than-human and human profane and sacred.

The raw and wild choreography is accompanied and extended by a surtitle projected in real time that offers a second point of entry to this two-voiced yonologue. The text is made up of 'traces', textual fragments collected during somatic experiments centered onto the pelvis, and quotations selected from the fictional and non-fictional literary landscape that surrounds us.

During the piece, the body also dialogues with a video (which evokes a collective imagination of the pelvis through anatomy, biology, nature, religion, daily life, mythology, archeology) creating a strong and impactful visual landscape where reality and fiction merge.

The “graphical” gesture unfolds in parallel with the choreographed gesture, as if to give voice through the words and the images to a preverbal language, embodying, at the same time, the creative and original power of a woman.

The performance comes to an end with a vocal guidance for the audience, who are gently invited to immerse themselves in a sensitive and participatory experience of their own pelvis.

NOTES

"O." is the result of a somatic and choreographic based-research process CORPO PELVICO centered on the energetic, motor and creative potential of the pelvic sphere.

By sharing among a diverse public (such as illiterate women, seniors, children, professionals and amateur adults in the field of performing arts) I could realize how crucial it is to work specifically on the pelvis, and how urgent it has become to give a voice to such an intimate place.

From these encounters came a desire to gather, abstract, and transform the materials and experiences I’ve collected since the dawn of this work to mold it into a poetic stage shape: O. .

Concept, choreography & performance Francesca Saraullo

Dramaturgy & text Alice Van der Wielen-Honinckx

Light design & Stage management Eleanor Bryce / Joseph Iavicoli

Sound Clelia Patrono

Video Francesca Saraullo

Costume Berenike Corcuera

Set & costume research Francesca Saraullo in collaboration with Le Vaisseau Tournai

Artistic accompanying Ilaria Orlandini, Hélène Gautier

Choreographic advice Stéphanie Auberville

Outside eye Silvia Pezzarossi

Time ⁓ 45'

PARTNERS

Co-production Gruppo E-Motion

Creation residency Campo; Danspunt ; Arts Centre VIERNULVIER ; Escale du Nord – CC d'Anderlecht ; GC De Rinck; Summer PARTS; Le Vaisseau - Tournai ; Florian Metateatro ; SpazioMatta.

Research residency (2023-2020) : Kunstenwerkplaats ; LeBamp ; Teatre de sa Teulera Andratx ; Spazio Matta ; Zfinmalta dance national academy («AiR 2022»); Marosi Stromboli Festival («around a process of making 2022») ; Maison de la Création ; CC Garçia Lorca ; Garage29 (GINcubator21) ; Charleroi danse ; Théâtre Marni ; De Kriekelaar GC ; Workspace Ricerca X, Lavanderia a Vapore ; ATLAS, ImPulsTanz.

With the support of Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (grant) ; Charleroi danse (grant) ; WBI ; LeBamp ; ILES Artist Project ; Institut culturel italien à Malte ; Zfinmalta dance national academy ; Workspace Ricerca X.

teaser, O. work step, May 2024

OFFestival - garage29, Brussels, Belgium

yonologue

Template of the written yonologue projected in live

W., art video dance, 2020

Dance Video Festival Bourgogne, IDFFBrussels

Born from CORPO PELVICO research-based project

“Let us listen to the language of the body, its fragility and imperfections, in order to find, beyond its periphery, that magical continuity with the other living organisms that populate the Earth.”

Silvia Federici, PAR-DELÀ LES FRONTIÈRES DU CORPS